feel it still

lights plunge them all in to momentary darkness and there are few in the audience who gasp out in excitement, and then they are all frozen. the silence that befalls the area is eerie as a circus is among the worst places for such kinds of stillness to fall. that’s when adalinda notices the supposed leader of the circus is still capable of movement as he exits the smoke to an already unresponsive crowd. it doesn’t take a genius to realize that some part of this miraculous plan as gone terribly wrong. the shadows at the corner of the tent quickly wrap around them as they slink back carefully, eyes skimming the room for any familiar faces. the ability is still new to them as her form vanishes and a small  but brief, flash of bright light leaves only air in her place. a split second later they reappear and collide into an unexpected mass and pull back at the touch. 

The silence of the crowd confused him, he’d never heard anything else like it. One moment there were children screaming and people applauding, and the next nothing. Glancing over at the ringmaster, Gideon realized it was now or never. As he stepped off to the side, he also spread his wings to fly. Something, or someone, crashed into him and he thought he’d been caught. The darkness dissipates, and Gideon found himself staring at a woman he’d never seen before. “Are you hurt? I’m sorry...”

Eriadon tries not to appear startled by Gideon’s voice, swallowing hard. He wanted to go back to the manor, lay beside his not-sister and stare at each other through the night. He missed her terribly, not as terribly as his buried-sister but he didn’t want to be apart for fear that something would happen and tear them apart forever. Again. He looks to Gideon, trying to smile at him but he was always under the impression that people were just patient with his existence. “Right…” After a beat, he thinks he might as well add a warning. “Be careful tonight, though, yeah?”

Though they never really spoke much, Gideon felt a kinship toward Eriadon. They were both suffering under the thumb of the ringmaster and the leaders of the circus. He appreciated the concern and nodded back at the ghostly figure, “Thanks. Stay safe as well, mate. Do not let the ringmaster scare you.” Mentioning him made Gideon wonder if the ringmaster ever stole blood from Eriadon too. He thought to ask, but the booming voice of the announcer broke his train of thought. “Oh... yes. Well there is our cue.”

Breathe, he reminded himself. Eriadon didn’t want to tip off his owners that he didn’t come alone tonight. He felt happier than usual, but he knows it doesn’t show. He wasn’t the best at showing emotion, even if he was overcome with his excitement about the Adalinda who’d come to him from the future. The curtains are coming up, the first performers taking the stage. He fights the urge to run and hide. “Just one more night…” he whispers.

After he’d been caught shifting by a scoundrel, Gideon was abducted and dragged into the circus with promises to keep his secret as long as he remained with them. Tonight marked the sixth month he’d been here, but all he wanted was to go home. Maybe his life wasn’t so great with his Pa dead, and his mother institutionalized, but he missed his cousin. Getting ready for the show, Gideon passed by the performer and tried to offer words of encouragement, “Just like any other night, right mate?” Gideon wasn’t aware of the plans he or anyone else had, he just assumed the ghost was similar to himself. Every night he told himself just one more.

Lorna looks back at Gideon just in time to catch the wink and the joke. She laughs, and steps out onto the roof proper. The presence of the couch is more surprising, though once she remembers exactly where she is, the idea that someone could get it up here wasn’t so strange.

She raises an eyebrow when he offers the bottle he picks up, not knowing where it came from. When he takes a swig, proclaiming it disgusting, she laughs and takes the bottle. Unlike with Pietro, she doesn’t tell him she doesn’t drink much, just taking a swig herself. “Oh god,” she says as the aftertaste shocks her mouth. “That’s awful.”

While she takes her drink, Gideon is busy dusting off a spot on the couch for her in case she wants to sit. "Yeah... I warned ya. Sorta. Probably nasty 'cos it's cheap. Disappointin' really," he laughs adding, "considerin' where we live now." He was fine with it though, he'd had worse, and he actually snagged this one after all.

“Oh definitely.” She sits down, curling up her legs under her. “Wouldn’t want people crowding it up and ruining it. Might end up having to get up at a normal time to get some quiet.”

Lorna chuckled. “Good. I feel much safer.”

When he pushed open the door, sure enough, it was empty. Orange sunlight spilled over it the sun set. From their vantage point, it coloured the whole school. A smile spread over her face as Lorna stepped out, looking back at Gideon. “It’s nice.”

“Thank god, I never would have lived it down if it wasn’t.” he winked making it obvious he was only joking. Now that they were alone, Gideon wondered if they’d start asking questions to get to know each other better. He considers it, but crinkles his nose at the thought and sits down on the dusty couch. It was dragged up here by someone else long ago, probably to make the lounging more comfortable.

Kurt chuckled, smiling. He liked his alias, too, though he thought it might be confusing if two people had the same one! The big power reveal was definitely an icebreaker, if a rather startling one. Nodding, the blue mutant thought for a moment about the uses for a prehensile tale. “Ja, it is, though I have never known any different,” he said. “It’s useful, for holding things, climbing, defense, attacking if eet comes to it. And–” He waved said tail around like a shrug. “Expressions.”

“Well then we should go see it.” Lorna raises an eyebrow when he mentions that the teacher got pushed off the top of the building, privately glad she could use magnetic fields to levitate in that case. It was a little more comforting to know that the fall hadn’t even really put him out of action for long. “Well as long as you’re not going to push me off…”

Gideon laughed so easily at the absurdity of that. He would never push anyone off, not even Mr. Wilson himself despite that annoying prick’s healing factor. “I’d never do that. You can trust me.” He draws an ‘X’ over his heart and bows slightly, “Cross my heart.”

“Really. It’s fine.” She was worried that this was the start of something else, but it could also just be simple insomnia. It was easier to try and believe that than the alternative. “Yeah, it’s nice. Quieter.”

Josh shrugs, desperately trying to keep the smile from his face. He didn’t think Gideon would actually go for it, and seeing his friend grope this absolute goblin of a cat was such a hysterical visual. “Guess you’re right,” he resigns, but only after he was certain he’d sucked out all the amusement from the moment. He then pulls a face at Gideon’s suggestion to speak to McCoy. “You really think he’s going to be onboard with this?” He figures their options were pretty limited to begin with. Kitty might be cool enough to keep their secret, and given her namesake, Josh figures they’d at least have that flimsy argument going for them. Come on, from one Kitty to another… There was also Remy, who had an obvious affinity for cats and might take pity on their new friend. It was still quite the gamble. He is reminded then of the hour, and resolves that if there was any lecturer still awake it was likely the good doctor. “Alright, sure,” he says, “We’ll go see if he’s awake, but if not we’re just gonna have to take it back to our room and deal with this in the morning.” He looks between the cat and Gideon. “But we should still try to hide it.”

The idea came to him a moment later, and he was nearly about to suggest Gideon be the one to execute it, but even Josh was not that unfair. He unzipped his hoodie and gingerly took the cat from his friend’s arms. And with a silent wish for luck, he zipped his hoodie back up with the cat inside. It was still behaving pretty mildly about this whole awkward situation, its massive fluffy head resting lazily a few inches below Josh’s. It twitched a mangled ear. “Sorry about this,” he says before zipping up the hoodie all the way to his chin. Any idiot with a pair of eyes would be able to tell that Josh was smuggling something under his jacket, but he was counting on the cover of darkness to at least give them some leeway. He steps towards the stairs and takes a well-here-goes-nothing kind of breath. “Alright. Let’s do this.”

As soon as Josh says it, Gideon decides it would be better to just deal with it in the morning. “Listen… fuck it. Does gender really matter? It’s a cat. We can deal with making up excuses after someone finds the little guy.” Clicking off the flashlight as soon as they get to the top of the stairs, Gideon swings open the door quickly to try and minimize any noise. Josh looked ridiculous in his attempt to hide the mangled beast, so they’d need to be as quiet as possible. Stepping out into the hall, Gideon checked to make sure the coast was clear, then motioned for Josh to join him. When his friend was out, he tried to ease the door shut this time so it wouldn’t slam. It creaked loudly and Gideon cringed until it finally clicked shut. He stood stock still, listening for any other movements besides theirs, and when he was satisfied with the silence he whispered to Josh, “We’re fixing that fucking door one of these days.”

“If the light isn’t on, just keep going. Like I said, fuck it. We should discover which of these teachers might actually like cats first. Like… Hank is a beast right, but he could be allergic to cats or something.” Gideon tiptoed behind Josh this time, stopping whenever his friend stopped and checking behind them every few feet. If someone was watching them with night vision goggles, which he could totally see Deadpool doing it, they’d probably have a helluva laugh about it. Even though he could see pretty well in the dark, Gideon still managed to slam his elbow into a corner of the wall, “Fffff—-“ he bit his tongue and grabbed Josh to stop him from moving just in case someone heard the bang. At this rate, they’d be better off running all the way to their room and just shutting the door behind them. Too bad there weren’t any locks. Lucky little princess Jean was the only student allowed one on her bedroom door.

“Oh.” That made sense. It made sense because he was stone-like and gargoyles were made out of stone, but it made even more sense if he liked a television show that was based on gargoyles. Kurt brightened. “Zat sounds great!” A paused, then he nodded. “I go by the name I was given at ze circus, back when I was performing dere. I was the Nightcrawler–and that is what I am now.” He nodded once, smiling.

He let out another “Oh.” He had intuitively thought the other was trying to relate and make him feel better, but hadn’t been sure. Kurt smiled. “Danke. Thank you,” he said. Grinned, then nodded. “Ja, I can. I can also hang from rafters with my tail. Like a monkey.” He laughed.

As soon as he hears circus, Gideon wants to ask Kurt all about it. After finally getting himself comfortable, he replies, “Nightcrawler... that sounds damn good, mate. Almost makes me want to change my alias...” He mumbles the last bit, now running through other names he could have picked.

“Hm?” Lorna looked up, surprised to find Gideon standing at the door to the lounge room. “Yeah. Just couldn’t sleep. Everything’s fine.”

Normal. While Lorna didn’t want to be normal, she knew what Gideon meant. It wouldn’t be a big fanfare to be mutant, they wouldn’t be treated with shame or disdain or fear. “Someday, yeah.” By the time they got there, it would feel like a whole new world.

She laughed, both at the enthusiasm to which he responded to her agreeing (when was the last time someone had been that happy for her to be with them?) and at the comment about the grass. “Sounds exactly like going outside then.”

The future could be bright, maybe not in their generation, but there was still an underlying hope there inside him. Gideon wanted it more than anything for the sake of everyone, especially his cousin and mutants like Kurt and Angel. Not everyone could change their skin easily like himself, essentially blending in with humans until they were outed.

“I might join you this time,” Lorna replies. His response to her apology makes her smile a little, feeling more comfortable with him. “Yeah, I guess.” She still wishes it hadn’t been her. “Exactly. But people just see the abilities, not us.” She nods. “Yeah. I’d like that.”

“Someday, they’ll see us again. It’ll be... for lack of a better phrase, I guess... normal to be mutant.” Gideon almost cringes at that, the fact that normal was the best option he could think of. Quickly, he tries to move on from that subject by showing his excitement for her agreeing to join him.

Lorna was beginning to think that that reason might’ve just been to either rub it in their faces or provoke an outburst. That, or the semblance of listening when they were never going to. Lorna wished she’d listened to her gut and not gone.

She chuckled slightly. “Yeah well. I have to say I’m glad he hasn’t yet.” She paused. “Look, I’m sorry. I put you and your cousin, and everyone else, in danger. I didn’t mean to but I did.”

“I’d probably ditch that too, if I were being honest.” he chuckled, but he face fell a bit when she apologized. He shook his head and sighed before opening his mouth again. From what it seemed, she definitely do it on purpose. His cousin could see the future, so she made it out unharmed and just a little shaken.

If Kurt was expecting anything, it wasn’t for Gideon to suddenly show the other his mutation, and it wasn’t for the other’s mutation to turn into a stone-like statue with wings. As such, the other mutant blinked rapidly, book in hand and tea in tail lowering as he stared in surprise at the change, which was presented very nonchalantly. 

“N-no, sorry, I have not,” he said, book and tea returning to their original position as he determined that the sudden change was not a decision from the other to fight him. In fact, perhaps, he thought (possibly) it was to show Kurt that he wasn’t alone in looking a little… different. Kurt smiled at the possibility. Then decided to ask. “Gideon, please forgive me if I am being rude, but why did you change your appearance just now?”

"Oh, well it’s pretty legit. I only started watching it because of my cousin, whenever I visited we’d turn it on. It’s an American thing mostly, not really common where I lived.” Gideon wriggled around in the seat trying to get his wings to fit comfortably, “Anyway, I got my codename from that show is all. Do you have a codename yet? Like a superhero alias?”

Lorna laughed a little nervously, taken aback by Gideon’s comment. She’d been worried about his reaction, but it seems she didn’t need to be. This was the easiest thing about her day now. “It should’ve gone smoothly. I shouldn’t have gone at all.”

“Right.” She’s not so sure, positive that there’s going to be backlash to her actions. But she didn’t want to dwell on that. Not today. Not with everything else as well. “I’ll be fine,” she confirmed.

“Nah, we were invited for a reason.” Gideon’s not entirely sure how it escalated, they didn’t show everything on the television of course. It didn’t matter though, the Professor probably would have locked her down if she’d done it on purpose. He didn’t seem about that life of hurting people for no reason.